The Grand Opening of the “Chinese Color Glaze Ceramic Art Tour Exhibition (Beijing, China)”

 

On the morning of August 12, 2025, the “Chinese Color Glaze Ceramic Art Tour Exhibition (Yuzhou, China 中国北京),” a Communication and Promotion Project funded by the China National Arts Fund (CNAF) 2025, officially opened at the Beijing Ceramic Art Museum. The exhibition was guided by the China Arts and Crafts Society, hosted by Beijing City University(BCU), and jointly organized by the School of Cultural Heritage of BCU and the Beijing Ceramic Art Museum. It was also co-organized by Guilin Art Museum, Jingdezhen Art Museum, Yuzhou Jun Porcelain Culture Park Co., Ltd., Hohhot Art Museum, China.com.cn China Porcelain Platform, Collection World (Beijing) Culture Co., Ltd., and Beijing Baijia Art Development Co., Ltd.

Six-city tour exhibition:Presentation of the era of Color glaze art

This exhibition tour departs from Guilin and has traveled through Jingdezhen景德镇, Fuzhou福州, Yuzhou禹州, Hohhot呼和浩特 and other places, crossing the north and south regions, connecting ceramic towns and cultural highlands, forming a display path that combines academic depth and public influence. The exhibition gathers 84 representative works of color glazed ceramics from 64 artists across the country. The exhibition lineup includes well-known art schools such as Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts, Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, China Academy of Art, China Academy of Art, Jingdezhen Ceramic University, as well as cultural institutions such as the Palace Museum. At the same time, it also includes many Chinese arts and crafts masters, national intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and provincial arts and crafts masters, presenting an artistic pattern that combines skills and academia.

In addition to continuing the three part structure of "Inheriting Classics: Color Glaze Art Life Aesthetics", "Craftsmanship and Creative Presentation of Color Glaze Art", and "Boundary Integration: Frontier Expression of Color Glaze Art", the exhibition also specially sets up an immersive exhibition hall, creating a multidimensional sensory experience through the combination of digital technology and color glaze art, allowing the audience to experience the beauty of the coexistence of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary technology in the interweaving of light, shadow and glaze color.

The cultural highland of color glaze art in the capital's opening ceremony

The project leader and director of the Cultural Relics Digital Research Center of the School of Cultural Heritage at Beijing City University, Li Bing李冰, reviewed the six station history and systematic preparation process of the exhibition since its first exhibition in Guilin. She pointed out that color glazed ceramics, with their layered and ever-changing glaze color language and cultural heritage spanning thousands of years, are not only important representatives of both technical and aesthetic depth in the Chinese ceramic craft lineage, but also vivid examples of the integration of Eastern creative wisdom and contemporary design spirit. In the context of the strategy of building a strong cultural nation in the new era, the Beijing Station not only brings together the collective presentation of top ceramic art creation and academic research in the country, but also focuses on the cultural highland of the capital, faces the whole country and even the world, and builds an important platform for the international dissemination, academic exchange, and industrial docking of color glaze art. Li Bing emphasized that this stop is not only the conclusion and summary of the exhibition stage, but also the strategic starting point for China's glazed ceramic art to move from a "national exhibition" to a "global dialogue".

In her speech, Hu Liqin胡丽琴, Vice President of Beijing City University, stated that this exhibition tour departs from Beijing, passes through Guilin, Yuzhou, Fuzhou, Hohhot, Jingdezhen, and finally returns to Beijing, symbolizing the commitment to "never forget our original intention and keep the beginning as the end". As a university based in the capital, Beijing City University has always shouldered the mission of serving the development of the capital and cultivating socialist builders and successors. It adheres to the cultural foundation of the capital and delivers batches of high-quality talents to meet the needs of society and the country. Since its establishment, the school has adhered to the genes of reform, exploration, and independent innovation, actively promoting the construction of independent knowledge systems in philosophy and social sciences through subject construction, original textbook research and development, and other aspects. At the same time, the school insists on serving society, Its Department of Cultural Heritage has carried out training for intangible cultural heritage inheritors for five consecutive years, She emphasized that in the future, she will continue to deepen talent cultivation and cultural research on the path of "starting from the beginning, independent innovation, and serving society", contribute to the construction of a cultural power, and wish the exhibition a complete success.

The guests attending the opening ceremony also include representatives from Beijing universities, industry associations, art institutions, and media. After the ceremony, guests took a group photo and visited the exhibition together, experiencing the unique charm of glazed flowing light on site.

photograph of guest group

photograph of exhibition site

photograph of exhibition site

immersive exhibition hall

After the opening ceremony, a "Parent-Child Color Glaze Experience Art Education Activity" was also held, with a total of 20 families participating. This event, as a special event of the National Art Fund's 2025 Communication, Exchange and Promotion Support Project - "Chimese Color Glazed Ceramic Art Exhibition (Beijing Station)", aims to enhance parent-child aesthetic education, inherit traditional culture, strengthen parent-child interaction, and promote ceramic art. The event attracted many families to participate, bringing children a unique ceramic art feast through art lectures, practical experiences, and other activities.

Academic Dialogue: Inheritance and Future of Color Glazing Art

In the afternoon of that day, the academic seminar "Exhibition of Chinese Glazed Ceramic Art Works (Beijing Station)" was held in the multifunctional hall of the Beijing Ceramic Art Museum. The seminar was chaired by Professor Zhang Fuye张夫也 from the School of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, and brought together experts, scholars, and artist representatives from universities and industry institutions such as Tsinghua University, Beijing City University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and China Cultural Relics Daily. At the beginning of the conference, Professor Zhang Fu from Tsinghua University gave a speech, highly uating the academic significance and social impact of the exhibition, and pointing out that as an important branch of Chinese ceramic art, color glazed ceramics need to constantly explore new paths of cross-border integration and contemporary expression in inheritance.

During the keynote speech, Professor Li Zheng'an李正安 from the Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, gave a brief introduction on the origin and personal practice of ceramic glazes. He sorted out the historical origins and technological evolution of glazes, and combined his personal creative practice to explore the aesthetic logic and technical principles behind glaze color changes.

Chen Liehan陈烈汉, a professor at Beijing City University and a master of Chinese arts and crafts, shared his experimental achievements in shape design and glaze color control under the title "Exploration of Innovative Design of Chinese Glazed Ceramics", emphasizing the deep integration of traditional techniques and contemporary design concepts.

Associate Professor Liu Runfu刘润福 from the School of Fine Arts at Tsinghua University's "The Significance and Extension of Ceramic 'Glaze' and Its Application Practice in Personal Creation" analyzes the core value of glaze as a ceramic language and its potential in cross media creation from the dual perspectives of materials science and artistic creation.

In her speech entitled "Construction of Innovative Concepts and Contemporary Creation Development of Chinese Colored Glaze", Professor Li Bing, project leader and director of the Digital Research Center for Cultural Relics at Beijing City University, put forward the concept of "broad-sense colored glaze". She expounded its multi-dimensional applications in material science and artistic creation, and explored the development prospects of Chinese colored glaze.

In the free discussion session, the attending guests had in-depth exchanges on topics such as the inheritance of craftsmanship, creative paths, market promotion, and international exchanges of glazed ceramics. They put forward constructive suggestions such as strengthening the combination of industry, academia, and research, building a national platform for glazed art creation and research, and promoting the cultivation of young talents.

Photograph of guest group

The seminar ended successfully with a group photo of the guests. The attendees unanimously agreed that the seminar not only provided a high-end communication platform for academic research on glazed ceramics, but also pointed out the direction for future innovative practices and international development in this field, injecting new ideological impetus into the prosperous development of Chinese ceramic art in the new era.

It is reported that the exhibition on this website will last until August 26th. During this period, public tours and other activities will also be held to further deepen the public dissemination and aesthetic education functions of glazed ceramics. The organizer stated that in the future, the project will continue to promote cross-border cooperation and international exchanges in the art of glazed ceramics, allowing this craft that embodies millennium wisdom to shine with new brilliance in the cultural context of the new era.